Layoffs at Ford include engineers

[Infiniti Z350]

By Bryce G. Hoffman / The Detroit News

Sales and marketing employees were not the only ones to lose their jobs at Ford Motor Co. last week. A number of engineers and white-collar manufacturing workers also were laid off as part of the automaker's effort to reduce its salaried head count by 5 percent.

"Thursday was not just marketing, sales and service," said Ford spokeswoman Marcey Evans. "There were others."

While Evans would not say how many salaried workers lost their jobs, she did say it was "significantly less" than the 400 involuntary layoffs the company had anticipated would be necessary to meet its payroll reduction goals. She said no further white-collar layoffs are expected this year, though she said some employees who were not in the office Thursday could still get pink slips when they return.

Ford has been struggling to rein in costs as its market share continues to slip and its financial troubles mount.

The company's share of the North American vehicle market has dropped from more than 26 percent in 1995 to less than 18 percent today.

The automaker posted a $1.2 billion pre-tax loss in the second quarter.

Earlier this year, Ford eliminated 1,100 salaried positions through a combination of buyouts and early retirement packages.

It also cut 10 percent of its contract employees. The company said it wanted to cut another 5 percent of its 35,000-strong North American salaried work force by Oct. 1.

Since then, a number of workers have left voluntarily. That has meant fewer pink slips were necessary than the company had originally planned. Laid-off workers will receive severance packages.

The effort to shrink salaried payroll is part of a broader, corporatewide restructuring effort.

"We're really looking for new efficiencies," Evans said.

The company also has eliminated 2005 bonuses for salaried management employees worldwide and has suspended its 401(k) matching grant for white-collar workers.

More: http://www.detnews.com/2005/autosins...B01-333910.htm

[DuSpinnst]

And the market continues to be flooded with experianced engineers... How is an entry level person like me suppose to get a job? This blows....

[mrfunji]

if companies only hired the experience engineers then in 40 years they'd have no one to work for them.

plus experienced engineers are used to 70k/year while you wouldn't mind 50k

[johnny smallblock]

Too many companies...too many cars. The time has come to purge.
The following companies must be eliminated:
Isuzu
Mitsu
Mercury
Suzuki
Lincoln
Jaguar
Toyota

[moman]

These kind of purges would not be necessary if companies wouldn't get all bloated in the good times. That's why I'm an advocate of slash-and-burn management. Figure out who on every team is in the weakest 10% of total headcount and cut them each year.

If a job requires 5 employees, run it with 5. Don't hire 7 because your budget is increased a little this year. Throwing more headcount at a problem is often the easiest, but not the best, most fruitful, or appropriate longterm fix.

[timman]

Originally Posted by johnny smallblock

Too many companies...too many cars. The time has come to purge.
The following companies must be eliminated:
Isuzu
Mitsu
Mercury
Suzuki
Lincoln
Jaguar
Toyota

There is a problem (one of many) with this. There would be a glut of "perhaps" qualified Engineers back on the market vying for a good job and thusly reducing the value of the Engineers looking for jobs that pay market driven salaries, currently.

Experience will/should win out logically.

[surferdude00711]

Originally Posted by johnny smallblock

Too many companies...too many cars. The time has come to purge.
The following companies must be eliminated:
Isuzu
Mitsu
Mercury
Suzuki
Lincoln
Jaguar
Toyota

More power to ya! But I'd keep Jaguar and Lincoln if Ford will stop giving them Fords.